The present invention is directed to a shock strut for a vehicle and includes a spring plate for supporting a helical spring with a receiving or holding member connected to the spring plate for preventing the lateral movement of the helical spring in the event of a spring failure.
To counteract the bending moment resulting from the wheel load in a vehicle, the axis of the helical spring in such a shock strut is often arranged eccentrically or obliquely to the axis of the vibration damper, as is the case in the German Auslegeschrift No. 1 430 586. Where a spring plate is attached eccentrically about the container of a vibration damper, a lateral force acts upon the spring which tends to cause lateral displacement of the spring. To maintain the bending moment acting on the piston rod as low as possible, the shock strut is located as closely as possible from the wheel. To prevent any lateral displacement of the spring in the event of a spring failure, a receiving or catching device is proposed in the German patent application P No. 34 23 557.4 published as DT No. 3423557 on Jan. 9, 1986 which holds the helical spring along its outer contour. For a radially fixed attachment of the receiving device with the spring plate a welding connection is used and such a connection is particularly expensive to produce when zinc-coated spring plates are used, since the spot to be welded must be free of any zinc coating.